Medium row: Kusma threatens to sue govt for Rs 100 crore

The Karnataka Unaided School Managements’ Association (KUSMA) has threatened to file a Rs 100-crore civil lawsuit against State government officials for not implementing the Supreme Court verdict on the medium of instruction in schools.

While the government is yet to take a stand on the language policy, schools in the State have gone ahead and sought permission to use English as the medium of instruction.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Kusma president V R N Reddy said, “We have every right to run English-medium schools since the Supreme Court verdict in this regard is in our favour. Irrespective of whether the government is going to process our applications or not, we will run classes in English medium.”

‘Schools harassed’

The association has contemplated the civil suit against the government for derecognising some of the schools (for running English medium) and against alleged harassment of schools by officials of the Department of Public Instruction in this regard.

Reddy said that they had been requesting the government to convert existing Kannada-medium schools to English schools and even though six months have passed, the government has not replied to this.

Further, in an official release, Kusma has stated that after the Supreme Court had given a verdict that the State government cannot impose the medium of instruction on students, the government sought a review, but the apex court had dismissed the same.

“Anyone with even a faint understanding of the Constitution should know that the Supreme Court’s order is binding on DPI officials and that the language policy has no application to private unaided schools in Karnataka.”

Kannada translations

Also, the association has decided to give Kannada translations of the High Court and Supreme Court judgments apart from a copy of the Kannada translation of a recent SC judgment that says officers should not take oral instructions from their superiors if they suspect that their superiors are issuing illegal instructions, the release stated.
In order to discuss the same with members of the association, a meeting of Kusma members will be held on December 8, Reddy added.